A Surprising Number of America’s Mayors Support $15 Minimum Wage

Democratic presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders are struggling to push pocketbook concerns ahead of the hot-button issues such as terrorism that dominate on the GOP side, but surprising numbers of America's most prominent mayors view poverty—and a higher minimum wage—as priorities for their cities.

Nearly two-thirds of mayors surveyed anonymously by Politico say that raising the minimum wage is something they would endorse. A third of them say they would heed the rallying cry of unions and progressives to push the wage as high as $15. They just don't say it out loud.

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This snapshot of thinking inside the executive offices of America's cities comes from POLITICO Magazine's fourth national Mayors Survey, part of the award-winning What Works series. The survey of 73 mayors, the largest response yet, clearly showed that even while city CEOs are still predominantly optimistic about the state of their local economies, doubts are creeping in.

Though not scientific—nearly three-quarters of the respondents were Democrat and 16 percent Republican—the answers of the survey revealed 71 percent of them felt their cities were better off now than six months ago. But that rosy outlook has dimmed somewhat since the last quarterly survey when more than three-quarters of the mayors felt their economic pictures improving. Asked to weigh in on news of jittery markets and global aftershocks, nearly half of mayors (48 percent) said they were worried about potential ramifications in their urban economies. (A third described themselves as largely unworried.)

A plurality of city CEOs, 37 percent, said they were in favor of raising their city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. But interestingly, many of those same mayors have been silent on the issue in public—and some have even opposed it. An additional 28 percent said they favored an increase less than $15. That brings the total number of mayors in favor of a general increase to 65percent. Still, the mayors could fairly be described as divided: coming in at a close second behind those in favor of a $15 increase were those staunchly opposed to any increase at all, at 29 percent. Four mayors said they had already adopted the $15 wage.

With Congress and most state legislatures tilting Republican, a minimum wage increase is viewed as dead-on-arrival in much of the country (indeed, nearly half the country’s states are now “right to work”). The “Fight for Fifteen” campaign, then, has shifted focus to cities, where they have sometimes found a potential ally in City Hall. Seattle, New York and recently Los Angeles have each approved a $15 minimum wage for some employees.

Graphic by Christina Animashaun

The robust support for increasing the minimum wage followed a clear trend: a high level of concern among mayors for the economic prospects of their poorest citizens. Asked to identify their greatest challenges their cities faced, mayors overwhelmingly ranked highest those issues affecting the poor: income inequality (with 81 percent of mayors calling it a serious issue), persistent poverty (80 percent) and affordable college education (69 percent).

Income inequality still seemed to divide mayors on party lines. Mayors who ranked inequality “neutral” or less of a challenge were 37 percent more likely to skew Republican, and leaned more southern in general. Eighty-eight percent of Democrats, on the other hand, ranked inequality a top concern, along with 83 percent of independents.

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One bipartisan point of agreement on the list of most challenging issues: improving mass transit. Ranking it among their top concerns were 71 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Republicans and 66 percent of independents or other party affiliates.

Tellingly, almost none of the mayors shared the fixation of a number of GOP presidential candidates: the influx of immigrants. Mayors overwhelmingly ranked that issue lowest among their economic concerns, with little partisan skewing—64 percent ranked it as among the least serious issues they face.

On issues of trade, mayors remained optimistic; asked about the recent passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest free trade agreement in history. 80 percent said they hold positive views of such agreements. Indeed, they expressed only modest anxiety about the loss of manufacturing jobs, a frequent criticism of trade agreements. The topic was raised recently at the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors, where U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman appeared to quell the concerns of uncertain mayors: “Not advancing trade agreements doesn’t prevent that dislocation. It simply sticks our heads in the sand.”